Need help breaking a disasterous habit

there is not that much "momentum" overnight

except perhaps when europe opens (?)

or on major news / earnings days of the biggest
capitalized issues ...

what do you mean by momentum ?

can you give some examples of your style of trading ?

how the heck were you profitable from the start ?

what prior experience gave you such an edge

esp at night ?

:)
 
You are doing quite well on the off hours with your hobby. Stick with it.

The choice of trading the "slow" market (off hours) is often a good one for some people. And you do have it straight vis a vis the relationship of ESXX to YM or DJXX.

Everyone needs a little sleep daily; I go for about 4 1/2 hours myself but I am older.

Were I you I would put on a few more contracts during part of your trading time and at other times run with fewer than you are now.

the tiome where you are making most $ is the two hour period before the cash opens. Load up during that interval and be sure to be sidelined during the first 20 minutes of the cash being open.

If you let your last hold slop over into the unsettled period of the open you can really drain profits that could have been locked in.

Prior to that two hour period, it is a toss up of being in or out. If there is a nice drift then trade it with only part of your capital. If not use it as a sideline rest period. I think the split would be 50/50 and you will probaly ride at an annual rate over 100K for your present max capital in the market. By adding that extra loading, you will break out well above the 150K annual max.

Less is more.

Don't try to carry over what you are doing into a trading approach for times when the cash market is open unless you change monitoring fractals by going up one or two fractals faster.

The dumb part does not apply to you. It is just that you are metally continuing to pick up speed and there just seems to be a little bit more space between thinking episodes now. By applying more capital in the fruitful portion of your trading session, you will be able to insert some more thoughtful stuff in those gaps you now have.

It will be sort of like doubling your current performance.
 
Quote from sputdr:

I only trade overnight.

I get up around 3am chicago time and trade until 8 am and in the afternoons.
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The YM is pretty much flat-line over night? The underlieing stocks trade mostly in the US. Trading YM EVERY NIGHT must be like watching paint dry? Heck trading the ES during your time period must be like watching a faucet drip?

You skip the market open?

This is like going to the hottest nightclub in NYC to get lucky, but having to be home by 8pm.

Try trading European based futures during this time period. Currencies. Interest rates. Brent Crude.
 
This reminds me of that saying.

A patient goes to the doctor and says "Doc it hurts when I lift me elbow above my head what can I do? and the Doctor says ..."Don't lift your elbow above your head". :D

If this is what you are seeing at these hours then stop fighting it and just trade it ... right?
 
Quote from SethArb:

how much size are you doing to make so much ?

there is not that much range overnight compared to the daytime hours ... maybe you can try trading the DAX ?

have you usually gone long overnight on dips?

some posters on ET claim this has been "easy"
money over the last few yrs

( hopefully you have a stop in place , just in case )
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I trade 5 and 10 lots of the minis or 1 and 2 lots of the bigs.

When I say I go with the momentum I mean if I see the dax rally or sell off or the dow then I jump in or I watch the charts and look for a turning point or support area and jump in there. I'm not in trades for more than a few minutes usually so I dont use stops. I trade volume not position so if the mkt doesn't move it's very difficult to make money.

I worked for a couple of guys that taught me some but mostly I learned on my own. In the good old days before the black boxes, prop shops on every corner and popularity of the minis the overnight trade was fantastic. Now there are too many jackasses in prop shops that guy and sell 100 lots and puke it if it goes against them so paper usually waits until they puke and then push it the other way, so if there isn't alot of size around you may get burned badly.


I guess I should stop lifting my arm over my head.
 
Here is exactly why I"m leaving the trading business.

This am I am short, dow goes up 4 pts, the S&P goes up 3/4 of one, take the loss.

LAter this am, mkt is a point lower, dow goes up 6 points, nasdaq goes up 2 1/2 s&p goes down.

This goes back to my though that there are too many dickheads at propshops and arcades that do stupid shit because they have access to far to much money.

This mkt is just gambling now and I have no interest in rewarding the merc for tunring it into this.
 
Quote from sputdr:

Here is exactly why I"m leaving the trading business.



This mkt is just gambling now
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You are absolutely right about this statement !!!!

They have changed for the worse no matter what anyone says.

You are a wise man.
 
sputdr

I the relationship between a trader and the market that isn't working, we most often hear the the trader say, "It isn't me it's YOU!" Whereas in most relationships that aren't working out we are used to hearing, "It isn't you it is ME!"

In your relationship with the market if you are not able to admit that it is YOU and not the MARKET, you probably won't survive or at least won't reach you full potential.

It is your emotions, your emotions, your emotions!!!!!!!!!!

Read: "The Psychology of Risk (Mastering Market Uncertainty) by Ari Kiev

and "Trading in the Zone" by Mark Douglas

Maybe some others could suggest some good books on psychology and managing the emotions of trading.

Good Luck
 
I totally agree with you 100%. It's definately me, the mkt is too schizo for me at this point to follow. It follows a different set of rules from hour to hour so you can never trust anything.

One minute if will follow the dow, the next the nasdaq and the next it follows nothing and leads nothing. I guess if I don't trust anything nobody else doesn't either so that is a good reason for all this jerking around. Additionally I tired of being frusterated all the time with it and getting angry, it's just not worth it anymore, it's not the good living it used to be.

I have at most 5 months left and will just try and tough it out until I can move on to my other venture.

It's the right decision for me at this point. I'm glad I can leave knowing I didn't fail but left for better reasons.





Quote from NUTSNEAL:

sputdr

I the relationship between a trader and the market that isn't working, we most often hear the the trader say, "It isn't me it's YOU!" Whereas in most relationships that aren't working out we are used to hearing, "It isn't you it is ME!"

In your relationship with the market if you are not able to admit that it is YOU and not the MARKET, you probably won't survive or at least won't reach you full potential.

It is your emotions, your emotions, your emotions!!!!!!!!!!

Read: "The Psychology of Risk (Mastering Market Uncertainty) by Ari Kiev

and "Trading in the Zone" by Mark Douglas

Maybe some others could suggest some good books on psychology and managing the emotions of trading.

Good Luck
More...
 
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